THE APRILIA 65° V4 WINS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE FIELD TOO

Published on 19 June 2017

Noale, 15 June 2017 - The extraordinary 1000cc Aprilia narrow V four cylinder that contributed to making the Aprilia RSV4 one of the most victorious bikes ever in the history of Superbike, also writing an exceptional page in the factory product history, made its début in the car racing world and it did so in the best possible way: winning.

Powered by the Aprilia V4, the Griiip G1 single-seater began its adventure in the Formula X Italian Series on 4 June on the Varano de’ Melegari circuit.

It was an exceptional début where the twenty-one year old Israeli driver Yarin Stern earned pole position straight away, even setting a new G1 track record (1’04”2). In the race, the exciting victory arrived: after a start that relegated him to tenth place at the beginning, Stern was protagonist of an exceptional comeback until taking the win with a pass on the final lap.

The application for the first time ever of a powerplant that is the only one of its kind in the world for configuration, with a 65° angle between the banks, a solution devised by the Aprilia Research and Development department as ideal for obtaining benchmark chassis architecture which can therefore boast exceptional performance, stems from the choice of the Israeli company Griiip to use it in their G1 single-seater and it confirms Aprilia Racing in the role of the most technological platform of the Piaggio Group, capable of transferring skills and innovation into the automotive field as well.

Made in Italy, the Griiip G1 is a single-seater with a tubular frame developed specifically to be fitted with a motorcycle engine and designed to provide a wider opportunity to fans who want to approach car racing, maintaining an extremely favourable cost/performance ratio. The unique nature of the project stems first and foremost from the longitudinal mounting of the V4 - with cardan final drive with differential - typical of open wheel racing vehicles, whereas these small single-seaters generally mount in-line engines transversally and with a chain final drive.

Engine lubrication and cooling are guaranteed even in the most critical conditions of high lateral acceleration in corners thanks to a dedicated system that implements an oil lubrication and recovery unit.

The dynamic air intake with oversized airbox and the 4 in 2 in 1 exhaust system complete the application of the RSV4 engine in a racing car.

Together with Griiip, Aprilia Racing intends to continue developing this particular application, introducing engine upgrades until reaching the SBK configuration in order to increase the car's overall performance. Upgrades are also planned on the electronics front, in terms of both hardware and software, to adapt it to a strictly car racing use.

Griiip, who recently presented the G1 at LiveWorx in Boston, the global conference dedicated to technology and a marketplace of solutions designed for an intelligent and interconnected world, has plans to build another twelve single-seaters equipped with the V4 from Noale and they will continue to take part in the Formula X Italian Series, a championship open to single-seaters and Sport prototypes which intends to introduce a new concept of automotive motorsport, exciting and low cost.

The great performance demonstrated by the G1 fitted with the Aprilia V4 further shows the great versatility of an extremely compact and lightweight engine, capable of guaranteeing absolute top shelf performance. This is a powerplant that, in its history, has allowed the factory product to dominate in comparative tests done by the specialised press all over the world, that has taken seven championship titles in World Superbike, with another double win - in the 2015 season - of the Rider and Manufacturer titles in the FIM CUP Superstock 1000 and has even competed in the MotoGP World Championship in the pneumatic valves version.

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